1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer and especially to a method for attaching an ink cartridge therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a conventional ink-jet printer, ink is supplied from an ink cartridge which stores the ink to a recording head which has a plurality of nozzles and printing is performed on a recording paper by discharging the ink from the plurality of nozzles. Since the ink in the recording head is consumed by discharging the ink, it is necessary to supply the ink from the ink cartridge constantly. Therefore, various kinds of methods for supplying the ink to the recording head have been proposed.
According to a first related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-272785 (1998), an ink cartridge is detachably attached to a carriage on which a recording head is mounted, ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to the recording head through an ink supply path, and the ink is discharged from nozzles. In addition, according to a second related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-144680, ink in an ink cartridge attached to an attaching unit of an ink-jet printer (a recording apparatus in the second related art) body is stored once in an ink tank mounted on a carriage through an ink tube connected to an ink extraction pipe of the attaching unit, and then it is supplied from the ink tank to a recording head.
However, according to the first related art, when a user attaches the ink cartridge for the first time or exchanges the ink cartridge, since the ink at the end portion of the ink supply path on the side of the ink cartridge is removed, in a case where a new ink cartridge is attached, bubble enters between the ink in the supply path and the ink in the cartridge. Although it is necessary to remove the ink on the down stream side than the bubble by suctioning operation in order to remove the bubble, if any a little amount of bubble remains, the bubble gradually grows and the ink cannot be discharged. In addition, according to the first related art, after the ink in the ink supply path and the recording head has been discharged completely by suctioning operation and the ink cartridge has been attached, the ink is introduced in empty ink supply path and recording head. However, in this case, a problem that a large amount of ink is discharged uselessly before the ink cartridge is attached occurs.
Similarly, according to the second related art, when a new ink cartridge is attached, bubble enters between the ink extraction pipe and the ink cartridge. Therefore, it is necessary to draw the ink from the ink cartridge to the side of the recording head by suctioning the ink from the nozzles of the recording head to move the bubble. In addition, according to the second related art, since the distance between the ink cartridge and the recording head is longer than that of the first related art, a problem that amount of waste ink is increased occurs.